The Chinese giant Tencent has problems at home. She was sued by the Beijing Center for the Protection of Children’s Rights (BCLARC), which was not satisfied with the game Honor of Kings. According to human rights activists, the title encourages gambling addiction and shows “unacceptable content”: openly dressed characters, violence and a distorted history of China.
Arena of Valor — international version Honor of Kings
According to the SCMP portal, this lawsuit was filed against the background of the tightening of the law on the protection of minors.
Yesterday, on June 1, amendments were added to it, which, among other things, prohibit the distribution of goods and services that cause addiction on the Internet.
It is not yet known what BCLARC requires from Tencent (for example, banning or reworking Honor of Kings). But, according to lawyers, the proceedings can greatly affect the profitability of the company and the price of its shares.
“Such lawsuits related to the protection of public interests usually end in huge fines,” said Xia Hailong from Shanghai Shenlun law firm. “Sometimes companies have to open special funds that are engaged in correcting the damage caused.”
Neither Tencent nor BCLARC have yet commented on the incident.
It’s not the first time Honor of Kings has been criticized in China. Earlier, the state media actively opposed it, which called the game “poison” and “drug” for young people.
Later, Tencent began restricting minors’ access to Honor of Kings. In 2017, she set limits on the time spent in the game, because of which children under the age of 12 could play only an hour a day, and teenagers 12-18 years old – no more than two hours. In 2018, Tencent introduced a facial recognition system. And since last September, Honor of Kings users have been required to play under their real names.
Now Honor of Kings is Tencent’s most successful game. In November last year, it became known that over 100 million people play it every day. According to AppMagic, the title’s revenue in April 2021 amounted to $108 million, which made it the second highest-grossing mobile game in the world (only revenues in the App Store and Google Play were taken into account).